What can a single tweet (a 140 character message sent over the Internet service, Twitter) accomplish?

Or a posting to the popular social media web service, Facebook?

In late January, a tweet began an avalanche of pushback that got a major corporation to backpeddle on its donation to an anti-ag activist group.

Michele Payn-Knoper, an Indiana-based promoter of farming causes (http://michelepaynknoper.com/) detailed the evolution of the backlash against Yellow Tail wine on her blog, causematters (see the complete timeline at http://causematters.wordpress.com/2010/02/19/a-note-to-hsus-genuinely-grassroots/).

Payn-Knoper founded Cause Matters Corp in 2001 with the express mission to help farmers tell their story to the 98.5 percent of the population who have no direct experience of modern farming. She grew up on a farm, has had a lifelong passion for raising dairy cattle, and currently farms in Central Indiana. This week Payn-Knoper is a keynote speaker at Commodity Classic, the annual national gathering of Corn, Soybeans, Wheat, Sorghum and other farm producers in Anaheim, California.

After Yellow Tail, an Australian winemaker with huge sales in the U.S., announced that it would donate $100,000 to Humane Society of the United States, a grassroots protest erupted. Agricultural producers who had enjoyed the winemaker’s offerings were shocked that it would give money to an organization that has made its name by splashing shock videos of rare farm animal mistreatment across the mass media in order to promote themselves and raise funds for their lobbying activities.

The backlash began, according to Payn-Knoper, with 75 tweets on January 25. By February 3, a Facebook page called “Yellowfail” was created to concentrate and focus the displeasure of “farmers, ranchers, sportsmen and animal welfare advocates” who reckoned that a value-added company that depends on a farm product, grapes, could not in good conscience contribute to HSUS.

In fact, one of the postings to the Yellowfail Facebook page says wryly: “friends don’t let friends contribute to HSUS.”
(http://www.facebook.com/yellowfail?ref=search&sid=1023793242.1847519103..1#!/yellowfail?v=wall&ref=search )

The grassroots movement spread the word that people who want to support local humane shelters don’t want to give to HSUS, which they allege is a powerful lobbying organization that aims to end all animal agriculture and hunting.

On the same day the Facebook page appeared, the rate rose to 1500 tweets per day decrying Yellowtail’s donation to HSUS.

By Feb. 19, Casella Wines, the owners of the YellowTail brand, issued a letter pledging that future donations from its “tails for tails” program would go to organizations that directly offer care to animals, rather than lobbyists for any animal causes of any kind. Among the facts that got major play on Twitter and Facebook is that HSUS spent less than half a percent of its revenue on actual animal care (2008 IRS tax filing).

“Farmers have to realize the conversation (about animal welfare and the environmental and human health dimensions of food production) is being had, with or without them,” said Payn-Knoper. “If we let HSUS represent us, we know what is going to happen. The amount of misinformation will grow.”

According to Payn-Knoper, we have seen a 40-fold increase in HSUS twitter traffic in the last 12 months and PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals—another infamous opponent of animal agriculture) has tripled its fan base.”

The Rx: every farmer should devote 15 minutes a day to social media

Still Payn-Knoper is far from giving up, and offers straightforward and optimistic advice to farmers and those who care about farming:

“I ask people to choose a tool—15 minutes a day – learn it, and put out messages,” said Payn-Knoper. “Facebook, Twitter, Linked-in, MySpace—learn about them and discover which one is a good fit for you.”

She said the first mistake farmers make is to believe that what they do every day holds no real interest for other people.

“Since we are only 1.5 percent of the population, we are a novelty,” Payn-Knoper said. “I have interacted with many farmers who have really experienced the shock of discovering that people care. It’s one of the characteristics of most farmers that we have a sense of modesty and independence that prevents us from talking about what we do. It’s time to lift the veil of modesty and share what you do—for someone who hasn’t been on the farm for five years it’s actually very interesting. The point is to put yourself in someone’s shoes who has not been involved in agriculture.”

Payn-Knoper noted the findings of a study in Michigan, which she characterized as a fairly rural state with plenty of agricultural activity.  Michigan State University researchers found that 65 percent of people in the state had not been on a farm in five years. Payn-Knoper further speculated that the even the minority that had visited a farm had probably been to a “tourist destination” type of farm and not necessarily a working, conventional farm operation.

“Farmers getting on Facebook or tweeting on Twitter can mitigate some of the activist videos that are doing so much damage to the cause of agriculture,” said Payn-Knoper. “These communications help people realize that farmers are people and not necessarily the bad people the activists paint us to be.”

Choosing the right medium for you

Twitter
As real-time web and social media on the Internet develop, according to Payn-Knoper, it becomes easier and easier to find a venue that works for you.

“Twitter is for the person who likes technical information overload,” she said.  “Currently, there are 27 million tweets a day. We need to recognize the opportunity—they can be especially effective in reaching a lot of people, very quickly. And it doesn’t take money.”

One of the features that can make Twitter especially helpful are tags, created by placing a pound sign or hashmark “#” in front of a word that represents an area of interest. For instance #agvocates is a Twitter hashmark started and used by agricultural advocates as a clearinghouse for ideas and information.

“You can look at Twitter as a kind of virtual cocktail party,” said Payn-Knoper. “The tags take you to different rooms and different conversations at the cocktail party.”

Payn-Knoper runs a moderated discussion every Tuesday night from 8-10 p.m. Eastern time, via Twitter, using the tag #agchat.

“It’s a great example of a community brought together by Twitter,” said Payn-Knoper. “We have grown to 1300 people since it started in April and each week about 120-200 people take part. They respond by tweeting to the moderator’s question, on a topic selected by the community. The questions have included:
•What keeps you awake at night (meaning what's your biggest fear/worry)?
•What gov regs & permits do you have to deal with & how time consuming is it?
•Why don't more farms market their product through local grocery stores?
Go to http://michelepaynknoper.com/agchatfaq.html to find out more about how agchat works.

Facebook
“Facebook (www.facebook.com) is for the highly social person—it’s like “watercooler talk,” said Payn-Knoper. “It’s a tool that most people will be comfortable with. There are 400 million people are on Facebook and it’s interesting to note that 66 percent of Facebook members are beyond college age, and women over 55 is fastest growing user group. It is a viable business tool and it’s not just for college kids. The conversation, again, is happening, whether ag is there or not.

Linked-In
Linked-In is like a rolodex on line. It’s a combination of a little black book and
a robust business-to-business and job-search tool,” said Payn-Knoper. “It’s a more professional level site that offers ways to ask questions discretely.

Payn-Knoper advises that to maximize the utility of Linked-In place buttons or links directly on your Facebook page or in your Twitter profile.

“A few months ago Linked-In added the ability to tweet directly from a Linked-In a status update,” she said. “Personally, I have been booked as a speaker over all three tools. Some clients will only communicate over these. I know of major business deals that have come about through these real-time web media. You can’t afford not to be involved.”